On Saturday may 6th 21 shooters gathered at the Antwerp Conservation Club for our first 2017 monthly silhouette shoot.
Silhouette shooting traces its roots back to Mexico, where competitors would shoot at live animals, we don’t do that, today’s matches are shot at animal cut outs or silhouettes of animals.
The course of fire is easy, you shoot offhand (standing, unsupported) at 10 chickens at 25 yards, 10 pigs at 50 yards, 10 turkeys at 75 yards and 10 rams at 100 yards. Our silhouette targets at 1/5 full size, and we use .22LR guns (or small bore guns as we call them).
This type of match is very fun for the competitor, as this is a shooter’s match, not an equipment race, a $3000 high end target gun is no more competitive then a $125 gun you learned to shoot on as a kid.
A first year competitor will average 13 out of 40 targets hit, and our competitors were just above that average with 2 young ladies scoring deap in 20’s, besting several adults with years of shooting behind them.
This match was extremely rewarding to me as I had the pleasure of teaching a family of 6, who had never shot before, proper gun safety, proper rifle handling, and then marksmanship on our range. The competitors that day stepped up and offered their rifles, and helped coach these new members in this match. The kids were excited to shoot in a match, and the girls out scored the boys.
Our monthly 22LR silhouette match is held the 1st Saturday of each month and the general public is welcome to participate. Please make plans to join us.
